Coach Yourself Through a Crisis

In the episode 'Coach Yourself Through a Crisis' from 'The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos', Dr. Santos addresses the heightened anxiety and uncertainty caused by the global spread of coronavirus. She shares her personal experience of stress and poor decision-making, such as panic buying at the grocery store, which led her to seek expert advice on managing emotions during the crisis. Dr. Santos consults Professor Ethan Cross of the University of Michigan, who specializes in the study of self-control and emotion. Cross explains that intense emotions like anxiety can cause us to hyper-focus on threats, impairing our decision-making and planning abilities. This over-focus can also lead to social isolation, as excessive expression of anxiety may push others away, and chronic anxiety can have detrimental effects on physical health.

Cross introduces the concept of emotion regulation, which is the ability to align our feelings with how we want to feel, usually by reducing negative emotions. He clarifies that regulation is not about shutting off emotions but managing them to a level that is adaptive for the situation. Cross's research emphasizes the use of psychological distance to manage emotions, a technique that involves talking to oneself in the third person, as demonstrated by basketball player LeBron James during a stressful free agency decision. This method, termed 'self-distancing', helps individuals gain perspective on their problems and respond more rationally. Dr. Santos and Cross discuss various studies that support the effectiveness of self-distancing, including one where participants who referred to themselves by name felt less shame and ruminated less after a stressful public speaking task.

The episode also explores temporal distancing, another emotion regulation strategy. This involves mentally projecting oneself into the future to recognize the impermanence of the current situation. Cross suggests that considering how one will feel years from now can reduce the intensity of present emotions. He discusses the 'Batman effect' in children, where imagining oneself as a superhero can improve performance and emotional control. Finally, Cross touches upon his research during the Ebola crisis, which showed that using one's name to think about the threat helped people focus on fact-based reasons for not worrying, thereby reducing their anxiety.